THE MAN WHO MADE PLENTY MUCH CHOKE.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1798, 22 August 1906, Page 5

THE MAN WHO MADE PLENTY MUCH CHOKE.

(Bj John Dougall Reid.)

The general opinion was that—well* the worst place known or heard of—would never be full till he was in it. Making all allowances for exaggeration, it must bo conceded that the general opinion stood on a pair of pretty broad feet. Few men in the army, and certainly none in the particular regiment to which he belonged, more consistently or persistently got into scrapes, yet suoh was his quick wit, or, as some said, good luck, that he invariably contrived to wriggle out of three charges for every one brought home to him. He was a stoutly-built, round-faced fellow, with twinkling, blue eyes, an inextinguisliable thirst for fun, and what really seemed a constitutional inability to behave like a rational human being. The regimental authorities, with one or other of whom he was eternally in collision, had their doubts as to his perfect sanity, seeing that he did not drink, did not gamble, did not appear to have any reason for. carrying on as he did, other than, in* nate perversity, an ineradicable propensity towards doing tilings just because he shouldn’t. But enough of portraiture; ; and be turn to action, wo may ask the reader to take up the subject of our sketch* otherwise Private Jerry Vegg, otherwise the Holy Terror, as lie came out of a thick clump of wood one evening, and directed his steps towards the cantonments. For ottoe in a way lie was looking serious, even disgusted, and that not without reason. He had been out all day trying his hand as a shikari, and the results were—well, of sorts. He had done twenty miles of zigzag walking, had had a fight with a fakir, who. demanded toll, for the use of the roadway, and had only fired one shot. If he had missed that shot, he would not have felt so bad; but he didn’t—and when he went into the tliicket he found that he had wasted a cartridge and some pleasing hopes on, net an antelope, but a mangy “pire.” He called it bad luck, but truth called it unfathomable ignorance. Jungle craft is not picked up in a day, and his excursion into the wilds seldom ran to more than three or four in a year.. Plodding along with thoughts of the utter unsuitability of this world as a residence for paragons like himself, ho was suddenly surprised by hearing, a. man’s voice, but with a. very unmanly shako in it,. calL out: ‘ ‘Eh;—er—er—soldier.’ ’ Yegg stopped and looked up. He was passing a bungalow—long, low, and; standing in the midst of an extensive garden. And at the gate that ,1 opened from this garden on the road*. : was a big man in a big scare, if his. looks went, for anything. Vegg know him by sight as a Mr Corsar. and bv

reputation as a crank. _ He was a bank agent, a bachelor, with a liking for saving, a dislike for society, and just about as much jjJuck as would induce a chicken to cheek up to a dead hawk. “What’s the trouble?” asked the soldier, curiously. “Robbery—murder, even, it _may turn out to be,” was the agitated answer. “Axe you well supplied with cartridges ?” . _ “Got a couple ov dozen, ’sides my knife, if it’s fightin’ you mean. But, say, who’s been murdered?” “Nobody, as yet, although it • But come into the house, or rather help me in. I’ve hurt my ankle badly” “What’s come o’ your servants?” “They’ve all gpn©—bolted. ’’ By this time Vegg was becoming interested, so he opened the gate and assisted Oorsar to hobble into the house. “How did you hurt your ankle?” asked Vegg, as they ascended the verandah steps. “I —I thought I heard a noise and jumped out of that window,” replied the other, with just a touch of oonfusion. The ghost of a smile flickered about the soldier’s mouth. There did not seem to be so much as a mouse stirring about the place, and the rockery arrangement of angular stones under that particular window looked about the last place a prudent man would select as the landing end of a jump. But then fright is generally blind, and he remembered Corsar’s reputation for timidity. “Now, just tell me all about this ’ere,” he said, when he had got his charge safely planted in a chair. “I can make neither ’ead nor tail on it yet.” “Very well; I will. But”—and his frightened eyes darted nervously all round the large room—“ar© you sure your rifle is loaded? You see, they may oome at any moment.” “Yes, see,” and he withdrew and replaced the cartridge. “This is a Martini, an’ I can get off ten shots a minit with it ; if there’s a hurry on. An’ see ’ere; if by them as may come you mean robbers, they won’t com© till it’s dark. That’s more’ll an hour a/way, so take your time an’ tell me what all the bother’s about.” Somewhat reassured, Oorsar complied, and at once began his story. iLong before the end of it was reached Vegg had quite his air of half contemptuous amusement, and hi's face had grown alert and eager. Briefly, the bank agent’s tale was to the effect that he had been warned that morning by an unknown but friendly native that his house was to be attacked during the coming night. It had got about that he had a large treasure in money and valuables in the place, and although exaggeration had been at work, as usual, the report had really some truth in it. \vhy he, a hank official, kept valuables and money there instead of i'n a place more secure he did not explain, not even in answer to Vegg’s point-blank question. He had not quite credited the warning, he went on to say, until he returned from business during the early afternoon, when he found all his servants gone and the place deserted. No, they had taken nothing. They would not thieve themselves, but neither had they the courage to defy the thieves, and so they had bolted. Then just as he had ended his search of the house and locked up everything, preparatory to going to the police-station, the noise came that alarmed him to the point of jumping through the window. After injuring his ankle, ho could do no more than hobble down to the road gate in the hope that somebody might pass in time to help him. “And now,” he concluded, “what would you advise?”

Vegg took time to think over his answer, recognising at once that the position was distinctly serious. The bungalow stood remote from any other — quite four miles from anywhere, indeed —and Oorsar, with that niggardliness which was one of his leading charactenistics, kept no horse of his own, •doing all his driving—when he did drive, and that was not often—in native vehicles. This meant that it would take him —Vegg—a full hour to read! either the cantonments or the police station, even if Oorsar consented to being left alone, which was doubtful. The latter’s unsocial habits rendered it wholly unlikely that visitors would call, while an appeal to such natives as might be got at would be useless. They were not likely to incur the vengeance of the robbers if they could possibly avoid it. As for these .latter, he was inclined to think them the same gang that had been operating farther down country, but had been chased out of the district they had been terrorising about a month before. In that case, to leave Corsar alone, was to run a grave risk of having him murdered before help could be brought, as the thieves were pret-oy certain to make their appearance immediately after dark. There did not seem any way out of it other than that he himself should stay in the house throughout the night and take the chances of a fight. This conclusion reached, he was just about to communicate it to Corsar, when there came booming through the stall house a dull ; muffled knooking, as of someone trying to force a door fast shut. Corsar went white as chalk.

“Where did that come from?” asked Vegg, quickly. “I—l don’t know. It seemed to come from the back. It’s the same sound as I heard before.” “Well, I’m a-goin’ to find out who’s maldn’ it,” said Vegg, rising. “Strikes me as you’ve shut up somebody when you started locking.” “But there are no doors, or at least very few, to lock.” “Maybe. But the man as made that row is behind a door, or under the lid of a box, or Hark! there it is again!” As he spoke the sound came again, but longer, louder, more insistent. A sudden light of comprehension shohe on Corsar’s face. “Oh, it comes from the cellar!” he said. “The cellar? ’Ave you cellars ’ere?” “Yes—two; the one passing into the other. The man who had this bungalow built was a doctor, and had the cellars made to keep wine, chemicals, and specimens in. I’ve never used them, nor have my servants, though I know there’s a lot of lumber in them.” - “How are they got at?—by a door?” “No, a trap in what used to be the doctor's study.” “Then, as there’s hail’ .on a cat,” said Vegg, excitedly, “you’ve got one of those robbers under the trap. He’s sneaked in to hide there till night, so’s he could open the doors to the rest. You see, if it had been down otn the plains, where it’s too ’ot to shut doors an’ windows, they wouldn’t have needed to try that game; but up ’ere it’s different. What I’m wonderin’ is how he has jammed trap agin himself an’ why, when he did get in, he’s in such a wax to get out. ’Taint near night yet—at least such night as them wolves want for their devil’s work.”

“It is the air, possibly. It’s very bad down there.” “Very likely. But ’ere goes to get ’im out ov that. I think I can see a way to make the beggar useful. Just ’ear ’im! Ain’t be ’aving a beano i* Guided by the sound, and followed by Corsar, who, greatly encouraged by bis fearless bearing, hobbled after him with the aid of a stick, the “Holy Terror’ made for the study with positive eagerness. I he prospect for a rough-and-tumble with a real, live bandit almost compensated him for the whole day’s disappointments. CHAPTER 11. In a corner of the 'bare floor of the sometime study was the trap, and the first look at it showed Vegg that it closed with a self-acting spring, the brass catoh of which moved in a socket sunk in the floor. Placing the toe of his rifle butt against this, he forced it back, just as the imprisoned cutthroat below gave a mighty upward heave. For result the trap came over with a resounding crash, and a huge ruffian half scrambled, half tumbled up into the room. The prolonged struggle with the door that had followed his discovery that he had shut himself in had worked him into der moniao rage, and there was foam on hia lips as he made to rise, snatching at the knife in his cummerbund. And, then, with the coolness and deadly directness of a butcher felling an ox, Vegg dealt him a stroke with the clubbed rifle that rolled him on the floor like a log. “A rope—a cord—quick! he’ll come round in a minit,” said Vegg, sharply. ‘‘There’s a number of ropes in yonder shed,” replied Corsar, to whom movement just then was impossible. Apart from his injured ankle altogether, what he had just seen had scared half the life out of him. Putting down his rifle, Vegg threw open the window, leaped out, and ran

to the shed, returning almost at once with a serviceable length of strong cord. With this he deftly tied up the insensible daooiit, thereafter removing his weapons and rolling him in by the wall.

“You’ll do there till you’re wanted, my lad,” said the energetic one, gleefully. “Now, Corsar—But, first, let’s ’ave a look at them cellars. He went down the ladder-like stair as he spoke, and found that the recent prisoner had had a lamp with him, for it was still burning on the floor. By its light ho was able to make out his surroundings, and presently his eyes fell on something among the lumber, something that sent him over in haste to examine it. This he did quickly, but carefully—then turned and rushed up the stair, his face all alight with a great idea. ‘‘See ’ere,” he said, abruptly, “it 11 bo dark in twenty minits. Get all your money and jewels—all as we two can stow in our pockets—an’ 111 make that pig —ah, lie’s cornin’ to, I see — I’ll mako him carry you on his back to the ’ “There’s a cart, a sort of four-wheel-ed barrow that the gardeners use,” interrupted Corsar. "It’s in the shed where you got the rope.” “That’s better yet. Instead ov makin’ a porter of his nibs, we’ll make him a horse, or rather an ass, for if he hadn’t been an ass he’d never gone down into that cellar. But, listenI meant to leave the house to chance, but if you’ll show me where such valuable things as I can shift are, I’ll bundle them down into the cellar, then I’ll light two fires ov sticks an’ brnn-gtone-—there’s a lot ov it down there—one in each cellar —leave them burn in’ an’ shut the trap. That means that anything with life in it as tries to get into them cellars in the four or five

hours —well, it’ll ho the sick list for it. I’ve been at fumigatin’ games before. Quick, now! get a move on you, ’less you want the pair ov us done for.” Thus stimulated, Corsar set pain at defiance, and in an incredibly short spaoo of time the programme outlined above was carried out to the letter. The only check came from the obstinacy of the prisoner, who, on being told what he had to do, sullenly refused.

They were outside of the house now, •the door of which had just been looked. It was, too, nearly dark by this time, hut the moon was shining, and the smile revealed by its light on the face of Vegg was not good to see, as he brought the muzzle of his rifle against the broad chest of the rebel. “It is our lives against yours,” he said in the native tongue. “If we stay here till your friends come, we die. But you shall not see us die. Obey, and before I count five, or—; —” Oorsar turned physically sick, grasping the sides of the cart in which he lay. The full determination of this terrible soldier filled him with unreasoning horror, and that in spite of his knowledge of what, was at stake. But then ho had been a peace-at-any-price invertebrate all his life. For an instant, and only an instant, the savage stubbornness of the outlaw held its own. Then, with the snarl of a trapped wolf, h© seized the handle of the cart and ran it out on the road. With that dead I v rifle so near, and in such hands, neither resistance nor attempt to escape were to be thought of—even if that rope’s running loop had not been round his neok, with its other end in the grasp of the soldier. Although the darkness was now complete, they ran something of a risk from the chance of encountering some advance spies of the approaching marauders, wno could see in the dark like cats, and who, if anywhere at all near, could not have failed to hoar the noise made by the springless and also greaselees cart wheels. There was one wheel that every third or fourth revolution

sent abroad a teeth-edging shriek as if for help. And as every time it creaked, Vegg swore at it, the man in the cart had ample occasion to feel what it is to be an inoffensive saint in a wicked and warlike world. However, they were not molested; did not see a human being on all the road, indeed, until they reached the cantonments rear guard, and were pulled up by the challenge of the sentry. The quickest of quick work followed. The captured daooit was clapped in a cell, Corsar and his money and jewels were sent to hospital, and a volunteer party of thirty, fully a third of which were officers, were armed and ready to start for Corsar’s bungalow under the guidance of Vegg. Somebody, indeed, had said something about the police, hut that idea had been scouted. A military man had begun it, and military men should finish it, seemed to he the general notion, and with that belief they set out.

On the way Vegg enlightened them as to what he had done at the bungalow, in view of which condition of matters tlie commander of the party, a major of Vegg’s own regiment, formed certain plans, which, when they were still about a mile from their objective, he was at pains to explain. “Now, remember,” he concluded, “no attempt is to be made to quit cover until the scoundrels have entered the house, and even then no closer approach is to he made than that of surrounding the building. From what Private Vegg tells me, those suffians are likely to get a scare of scares in that house—that is, if they open the trap, and I suppose they’re pretty safe to do that?” —this last to Vegg.

“They’re sure to', sir. You see, the way I "left tilings tumbled about—empty cases an’ the like—will be safe to let them see that somebody’s been tryin’ to hide things, so they’ll be sure to look for the place. ’Sides, I left a couple ov silver spoons lyin’ on the study floor, close beside the trap catch —just to show them how the thing opens.”

“Egad, you’ve a head on you, my lad,” said the major, and the murmur of agreement that followed made the “Hojy Terror’s” face grow hot in tho darkness. “Well, when they open that trap, there will be an uprush of something that will sicken them, even i.f it does not finish some ot them outright. I know what concentrated sulphur fume© are. For that reason, too, our party had better stay outside and seize the miscreants as they holt. There won’t be much fight, in them, I fancy. You’vo all got cords?” “Yes,” answered a voice, “all except the provost-sergeant here and his men. They' v© handcuffs.' ’ “So now, Captain Semple, you take command of the rear party. Forward.” The little force, which had halted to hear the major’s explanation, now moved on again, and shortly afterwards divided into two —one half, under the major, to approach the bungalow from tho front, the other from the back.

Quick as had been the advance of the party from the cantonments, they found that all their haste had been needed, and that a delay of another half hour would have gone far to frustrate their plans. on reaching their appointed places, it was to discover that the dacoits were already in tho house, all, that is, but two, who seemed to bo keeping watch just without the shattered door. Lights were flashing from room to room, and an almost ceaseless rending, crashing, and tearing told what havoc the thieves were working among the belongings of the unfortunate Corsar. Occasionally a dusky figure would approach one of the windows and peer through the lattice, hut as no attempt had been made to open the latter, the watchers among the shrubbery concluded that the tightly-fitting trap door had as yet kept its secret. This had been going on for quite twenty minutes, when all at once a loud shout, followed by an excited jabbering, told that they had discovered the trap door. The two men without tho door went hastily indoors, and as they did so the cantonments party closed swiftly in, forming a complete ring round the house. Then came an interval of silence, broken ultimately by a tremendous crash. As was ascertained subsequently, the robbers, unable to discover or guess the method of moving the spring catch, ''had toppled over upon the trap a heavy safe filled with rupees, which the parsimonious Corsar had been collecting for, it was suspected, conversion into plate. And as this safe had Suite five feet to fall before it struck ic floor, it had gone through the trap as though the latter had been paper. All this came out afterwards; what cam© out then was an uproar that might well have awakened the dead—yells, howls, shrieks, thudding of feet, and mashing of falling overwrown in the wild stampede that followed the breaking of the trap. Almost at onoe the house began to fill with a yellow fog, thick and strangling, in the midst of which tho now demented and choking wretches raced and raged and fought like devils. The lights had been all extinguished, and not one of the trapped and suffocating dacoits seemed able to find the door. “Smash the frames out of the win- ( dows.” shouted the maior. “Quick!—

or there won’t be a man of them left alive!” The order was instantly carried out, and the crash of breaking wood and glass seemed to draw the attention of those within to a way of escape. Next instant they began to come out, some some staggering, and one or two crawling—until eleven of them were lying about the garden—gasping, coughing, and groaning in a way thav was a thing to hear. “Talk about the sulphur cure, ’ said the major, eyeing the pestilential vapours splicing out of the broken windows. “It’s—Name o’ God! where’s that man going?” The question was evoked by seeing a soldier who had been kneeling beside one of the prostrate robbers, suddenly start lip and rush headlong into the yellowish-white mass rolling from the open doorway. “It’s Private Vegg, sir,” replied a sergeant. “It seems there should he twelve of the prisoners, and as there are only eleven here, one must he still in the house.” “A plucky thing, though the idiot may lose his own life over . Ah—here lie comes!” as Vegg, aliispst bursting from holding his breath; came flying through the doorway dragging the limp and insensible carcase of the missing dacoit after him. “What did you do that for?” asked the major, eyeing Yegg steadily. “Well, sir, I can’t explain exactly, hut I ’ad the feelin’ that though he might not he worth much, that wasn’t the sort ov death for a man, even a had ’un, to die.” Without a wore! the major held out his hand, and as Vegg rather diffidently took it, a stentorian voice rang out—- “ Three cheers, hoys, for the TToly Terror.’ ” They could pretty nearly have heard those cheers in the cantonments to which they shortly after wards returned with their prisoners, leaving a guard to watch over tho bungalow. Corsar, for once in his life, did a decent thing, lodging a sum of money with the regimental authorities against Yegg’s completion of service. He also gave up the outlying bungalow for one nearer safety in the shape of tuo Civil Lines, the police occupying his old one as an outpost. The deco its all received long sentences, and ever afterwards the native children in the bazaars used to point out Vegg as the sahib who made plenty much choke, and captured a whole hand of lootwallahs.